Allentown State Hospital

Allentown State Hospital
Allentown State Hospital
Established	July 18, 1901
Construction Began	1904
Opened	1912
Current Status	Active
Building Style	Pavilion Plan Hospitals
Location	Allentown, PA
Peak Patient Population	1,966 in 1947
Alternate Names	Pennsylvania State Homeopathic Asylum

From the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare web page: In 1901, the Germantown Homeopathic Medical Society of Philadelphia assisted in introducing and furthering a bill in the state legislature to provide for the selection of a site and construction of a state hospital for the insane. The hospital was to be under homeopathic management and control. A number of areas were evaluated before the Rittersville section of Lehigh County was accepted as the construction site. The cornerstone for the hospital was laid on June 27, 1904, but because of delays in financial appropriations, the hospital was not completed until 1912. The hospital was opened on October 3, 1912 at a cost of $1,931,270.

The first admissions were patients from Norristown and Danville State Hospitals, which were both overcrowded at that time. The hospital at Rittersville, or the Allentown Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane as it was called at the time, was the first homeopathic institution of its kind in Pennsylvania. The first Superintendent, Dr. Henry Klopp, was a homeopathic physician and the Hospital was closely allied with the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. The homeopathic medical approach was gradually changed to the more standard medical model and the homeopathic title was dropped from the name, the Hospital then being referred to as Allentown State Hospital.

The patient population quickly rose to 867. Over the years, the population and physical plant continued to expand, reaching a census high of 2,012 in 1950. The present population of 175 represents a trend towards decreasing populations in state hospitals, especially over the past decade. The major decline in the census since the 1950s can be attributed in part to 1.) the Mental Health Procedures Act of 1976 which lead to an increase in community mental health services, 2.) developments in the field of psychopharmacology, and 3.) a transfer of funding from the State Hospitals to the community through the Community Hospital Integration Program Project (CHIPPs).

Allentown State Hospital received patients primarily from a five-county service area. The counties specifically were Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, and Pike. These counties included the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, as well as a number of smaller municipalities. In the Spring of 2000, the catchment area was reduced to Lehigh and Northampton Counties.

Another unique aspect of the hospital was the development of a psychiatric treatment program for psychiatrically impaired children. This program, under the direction of Dr. Klopp, was opened in 1930 and functioned as the only program of its type in the state until the 1960s when Eastern State School and Hospital was opened. The Mental Health Institute for Children, as it was called, maintained a population of 140 children from across the state during the years when it was the only statewide facility for children. With the development of alternate programs in the community and construction of a State Hospital dedicated to children and adolescents, the need for the facility became less crucial and the unit was closed in June of 1992.

The Hospital maintains a close working relationship with the county mental health programs resulting in a free flow of information which assists in enhancing the treatment of patients, both in the Hospital and in the Community. This was due, in large part, to the CHIPPs program which not only discharged 130 patients from the hospital to more appropriate community settings, but transferred monies from the hospital budget to the county for developing long lasting infrastructures. CHIPPs would not have worked unless there was close and cooperative interactions between the hospital and the counties.

During the past decade, the hospital has undergone several significant changes in treating patients. The practice of seclusion, restraint and prn medications was replaced by the philosophy of "The more you do with the patients, the less you have to do to them". In 1992 a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) was formed and trained to handle violent/ acting out patients by talking to them and putting them in restraint/seclusion only as a last resort. Following Deputy Secretary of Mental Health, Charlie Curie's decree to reduce these two means of controlling patients, Allentown State Hospital saw seclusion and restraint as treatment failures rather than as treatment options. Two hours of program off the unit every weekday was instituted as a unique Centralized Program (i.e. CenPro) in September of 1998. In November of that year, seclusion was used for the last time at Allentown State Hospital - the first in the nation to go "seclusion free". The use of restraints was cut dramatically as well. Recreational activities were increased four fold on the weekends, although participation in them is voluntary.

Allentown State Hospital continually evaluates its treatment programs and develops new offerings to assure the best possible care for our patients.